Request By:
Dennis J. Conniff, Esq.
Natural Resources and Environmental
Protection Cabinet
Office of General Counsel
Fifth Floor, Capital Plaza Tower
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; James M. Ringo, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your letter on behalf of the Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission concerning whether semi-permanent duck blinds, constructed by private citizens, are located on and inconsistent with the Articles of Dedication of the Six Mile Island Nature Preserve.
Specifically, you ask:
"1. Whether the Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission has ownership of the submerged lands adjacent to the Six Mile Island Nature Preserve, which are included in the deed description of the area, and jurisdiction over those lands; and,
2. Whether the Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission may, therefore, enforce the restrictions found in the Articles of Dedication for the nature preserve as to those submerged lands."
In your letter you state all of Six Mile Island was dedicated as a nature preserve pursuant to the Kentucky Nature Preserves Act, KRS 146.410-146.990, by the Kentucky Department of Finance in Articles of Dedication recorded at Deed Book 5099, page 989, as recorded in the Jefferson County Clerk's Office. Ownership of the island was obtained by the Kentucky Department of Finance and Administration by Commissioner's Deed recorded at Deed Book 4770, page 192, as recorded in the Jefferson County Clerk's Office.
In addition to this, the Jefferson County Fiscal Court, under authority of KRS 56.220, leased to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Department of Finance & Administration, that portion of the bed of the Ohio River that surrounds Six Mile Island. (Lease Agreement, recorded in Deed Book 4743, page 690-694, Records of Jefferson County Clerk's Office.)
This lease agreement includes that portion of the bed of the Ohio River that surrounds Six Mile Island. The purpose of the lease is to maintain a buffer zone around the island to insure its continued use by the people of Kentucky.
Your first question asks, whether the Commission has ownership of the submerged lands adjacent to Six Mile Island. It is the opinion of this office that the Commission, pursuant to the lease agreement and the other documents referred to above, has control and jurisdiction of the submerged land adjacent to and surrounding Six Mile Island. Any duck blinds located within this "buffer zone" would be within the Six Mile Nature Preserve area and subject to the authority of the Commission.
This is consistent with the Commission's authority for and on behalf of the Commonwealth as set forth in KRS 146.465(4) to dedicate buffer areas for the purpose of protecting a nature preserve.
Accordingly, in response to your second question, the Commission may enforce the restrictions found in the Articles of Dedication for the Six Mile Island Nature Preserve as they relate to the submerged land surrounding the island that is included in the buffer zone leased from Jefferson County.